Snark Attack

Published
10:00 pm PDT, Friday, June 1, 2007

The U.S. Agriculture Department is appealing a court ruling that Creekstone Farms Premium Beef can test all of its cattle for mad cow disease. The administration says it wants to protect against "false positives" -- not to mention, one supposes, the problems from real positives and the public getting the idea that it deserves to know if its beef is healthy.

It's worse than that, Joe. The same company says it's willing to work with the Department of Agriculture to control false positives. In a country with free enterprise as a value, " I find it very difficult to understand why our government would not be supportive," Creekstone's founder John Stewart said. There is logic at work here: The decision favors cattle ranchers and beef processing companies at the expense of consumers. Because if consumers were given a choice ... never mind, I answered my own question.

Mark Trahant

With an enhancement to its popular map service, Google has started close-up photos -- clearly showing individuals, license plates and the like. The company likes to posture itself as a benevolent force. And wasn't Big Brother all about protecting the public, too, even as all privacy disappeared?